AND THE BRIDE WORE RED

While the bride wears white/ivory in many American or
European weddings, brides in India wear red. Red is a symbol of life, fertility
and joy in India. Meenu, our bride to the right, symbolizes the typical North
Indian Bride. She wears a lehnga choli heavily embroidered with gold metal
pieces. These dresses can easily weigh 20 lbs or more without the bridal
jewelry and other items added later by well wishers. What happens when East and
West collide? You get a bride wanting both worlds. Melanie, our bride to the
left, had her lehnga choli custom dyed to reflect both of the worlds she
is part of. White for American traditions and red for Indian traditions.
Her own dress was decorated "lightly" with metallic pieces but even a light
dress was very heavy for her and at times, it took two or three pairs of hands
to help her to a standing position. For information on ordering your own bridal
lehnga choli or sari, please contact us at info@pardesiservices.com

Henna. Mehndi. The strong green powder that is used to make brides and women
beautiful. Henna is probably one of the oldest cosmetics we have. The only
drawback is that henna has to remain on the skin without any interruption from
touch, water, etc. for many hours to develop the deep mahogany shade women hold
dear. After 3 hours of application for the hands and feet, Melanie was
instructed to keep her henna on for the entire day and even to sleep with it if
possible. After 7 hours, she could not take it anymore and scrubbed it from her
skin. Meenu, on the other hand, was able to sleep in hers and it remained on
her skin for more than 12 hours. Meenu explained to Melanie, "This thing
(mehndi) becomes like an obsession with us (brides). It is our pride."

If you would like to learn more about wedding customs in North India, please
click here:
Wedding Customs